<i>Nevermore</i> (review)
2010; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2010.0039
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
ResumoReviewed by: Nevermore Karen Coats Creagh, Kelly. Nevermore. Atheneum, 2010. [560p.] ISBN 978-1-4424-0200-3 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12. If there were ever a guy voted most likely to get lost in an Edgar Allan Poe–inspired dream world, it would be Varen Nethers, the tall, dark, and broody goth who sits in the back of Isobel's English class oozing depth and menace. As a perky, blonde, nonreading cheerleader, Isobel is yang to his yin in just about every way. When they are thrown together to work on an English project, her first reaction is revulsion (despite the little thrill she feels when he writes his number on her hand), but when her jock boyfriend and his pals commit an act of minor vandalism at Varen's workplace, Isobel's loyalties make a complete and irrevocable switch to the dark side. Unfortunately, Varen has been living up to his classmates' suspicions about him, channeling dark forces via a passionate commitment to the works of Poe, and soon Isobel finds herself pursued by creepy entities that hunt, hiss, and interfere with her cheerleading. Despite some campy elements (Varen's vampire-worthy name, for instance) and characters straight out of central casting, the plotting takes an original path through the tortured world of Poe's works, bringing stories and poems to life and culminating in a nightmarish evening for Isobel as an accidental guest at the Masque of the Red Death. Isobel's emotional register is devastatingly credible for a slightly spoiled sixteen-year-old girl as she yells, slams, and sulks her [End Page 11] way through her relationships; as her younger brother rightly notes about a fight with her dad, "If this were in Japanese… it could so be an anime." More centrally, though, Isabel's a worthy contemporary successor to all the gothic heroines lost on dark and stormy nights, and the titillating blend of melodrama, romance, grotesqueries, and literary allusions will raise readerly goosebumps. Copyright © 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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